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Hickey: NCAA hockey title opens doors for Montreal's Jim Montgomery

Author of the article:

Pat Hickey • Montreal Gazette

Publishing date:

April 15, 2017 • 3 minute read

Denver coach Jim Montgomery talks to his team during the third period of the NCAA Frozen Four championship college hockey game, against Minnesota-Duluth, Saturday, April 8, 2017, in Chicago. Denver won 3-2.Nam Y. Huh/ AP

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Jim Montgomery has become a hot commodity since leading the Denver Pioneers to the NCAA hockey championship last weekend.

In the wake of Denver’s 3-2 win over Minnesota-Duluth last week, there was a report from Detroit mentioning Montgomery as a possible replacement for the legendary Red Berenson at the University of Michigan.

There was another report out of South Florida suggesting that the NHL Florida Panthers would be interested in his services.

But Montgomery said he likes his situation in Denver, where he has been the head coach for the past four years.

“I’m happy here and I’d never leave for another college job,” Montgomery said by phone from the Mile High City. “We have a top-five program, its 80 degrees here, the sun is shining. There’s no reason to move.”

Unless. …

“If an NHL job came along I’d be intrigued, but it would have to be the right situation, the right ownership, the right general manager,” said Montgomery, who won the Spencer Penrose Award as the NCAA coach of the year.

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Montgomery said the NCAA title was one of the highlights of his hockey career, right up there with NCAA title he won in 1993 as a player at the University of Maine. He was named the most valuable player in the NCAA tournament. That championship capped one of the greatest seasons in U.S. college hockey history. The Black Bears posted a 42-1-2 record. Montgomery, who graduated as the all-time leading scorer at Maine, had 95 points that season, second only to his linemate Paul Kariya, who scored 100 points. The goaltending duties were shared by future NHLers Mike Dunham and Garth Snow.

“Any time you win a championship it’s an achievement,” said Montgomery who won an AHL title as a player with Philadelphia Phantoms and also coached the Dubuque Fighting Saints to two titles in the USHL. Among the players he coached in Dubuque were future NHL players Johnny Gaudreau, Zemgus Girgensons and Pointe-Claire’s Mike Matheson.

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Montgomery played 12 seasons of pro hockey, including 122 regular-season games and eight playoffs games in NHL. He’s the answer to the trivia question: Who came to the Canadiens in the 1994 trade that sent captain Guy Carbonneau to the St. Louis Blues? His stay in his hometown was short — he played only five games for the Canadiens.

Denver players celebrate their 3-2 win over Minnesota-Duluth during an NCAA Frozen Four championship college hockey game, Saturday, April 8, 2017, in Chicago.Nam Y. Huh/AP

Montgomery paid his dues en route to Denver. He served as an assistant coach at RPI and Notre Dame before beginning a three-year stint at Dubuque. His success there put him on Denver’s radar and he recruited all the players on this year’s championship team.

“We have a really good group and they understood the importance of hard work and sacrifice,” said Montgomery. “They understood that it’s important to do things for the good of the team. You see that in the NHL at this time of the year, in the playoffs, but during the regular season, it’s all about the contract.”

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Denver was ranked No. 1 for most of the season, but Montgomery said that it wasn’t a distraction for his players.

“The guys got a little excited back in November when we were ranked for the first time, but we kept our focus,” said Montgomery.

So what does the 47-year-old Montgomery do for an encore?

“We’re going to be good again next year,” he said. “Our top three forwards are going to be in second or third year, we lose our stud defenceman, but we should have our stud goaltender back. There are probably two or three guys who may get nibbles from their NHL teams, but we should be good.”

The major loss is defenceman Will Butcher. He earned all-American honours and won the Hobey Baker Trophy as the outstanding player in U.S. college hockey. The top scoring forwards are freshman Henrik Borgstrom and sophomores Troy Terry and Dylan Gambrell.

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Borgstrom, a 6-foot-3, 176-pound centre, was drafted in the first round by the Florida Panthers last year and earned all-American honours after scoring 22 goals and 21 assists in 37 games. Gambrell was a second-round (No. 60 overall) choice of the San Jose Sharks in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft, while Anaheim selected Terry in the fifth round (No. 48 overall) of the 2015 draft.

Goaltender Tanner Jaillet also earned all-American honours and won the Mike Richter Award as the top goaltender in the NCAA. He had a 28-5-4 record with a 1.84 goals-against average.

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